There are free wireless services offered by providers or companies to anyone in there premises such as the Wi-Fi hot spots in airports, cafes, company premises, restaurants etc have turned Internet access into a telephone like server 'Always-on'. Unfortunately, there are many who don't know what kind threats they may have come under on this free service with no security. It's your responsibility to protect your pc/laptops against such threats and security risks.

Anyone sitting on the public hot spot networks invites a very common threat known as Hacking just for the reason because wireless communication on public Hot Spots are insecure, unencrypted and people are unaware (less educated) about it.

Anyone sitting on the same network (Hot Spot) can capture your packet and can trace whatever you do when connected through wireless. This means, your private information is at stake and an intruder or a hacker can enter into your computer without your knowledge to retrieve confidential information like documents, passwords etc.

But don't worry as there is a lot you can do to protect your wireless connection

1. Disable ad hoc mode: it's very possible that you are connected to the hotspot over an ad-hoc connection. Basically you are connected in a peer-to-peer network where data security is always at risk. Try avoiding it as much as you can.
2. Disable File and print sharing: it's a known feature to make sure you can share your work with other and at the same time can access network based resource (files, folders, printer etc). A person tends to keep them shared even when connected to a public hot spot and this is something we shouldn't do. Don't invite others to take whatever they want from your machine.
3. Disable network discovery: In windows VISTA this feature makes your computer visible on a network so that other can try to access your shares and some may even want to enter with bad intensions. You can turn off this feature through your control panel, View network and tasks, sharing and discover and button and select the "Turn off network discover".
4. Encrypt your e-mail: all email going through hot spots is sent in clear text, which means, anyone can read it by capturing packets on your computer. You can choose good email encryption software from the internet to make sure every message sent out via outlook 2003 or other emailing clients, is always encrypted.
5. Use encrypted USB flash drive: avoid storing any personal/private/confidential data on your computer, instead use an encrypted flash drive for the storage. These USB drive are very cheap and are good means of carrying stored data anywhere in your pockets.
6. Enable Windows Firewall: make sure your windows firewall and defender program are running all the times you are connected to a Hot spot. Windows firewall is your personal firewall you can use to define the type of inbound access and windows defender program in an ant-spyware which alerts the user of any unwanted intrusion.